An Experiment

I just got back from a 10 minute run. Boring, I know but insightful. I've recently been of the opinion that you can use kung-fu shoes in the place of Vibram Five Fingers, given their sparse support and super-flat sole. They go on and off quickly which makes me wonder if they'd be a good alternative for the FiveFingers come triathlon time.

Well...I was not overly impressed. I managed to snag a pair from my folks' home this Thanksgiving and my run left me with some tough spots on the sides of my feet and each footfall was louder than any I've ever taken in my FiveFingers. I am not dismissing the idea entirely yet - but it's not looking good. At the end of ten minutes, my attention wandered to barefoot running and I gave it another go on the last two hundred yards home. That was awesome! I kept thinking about a recent article I read about the road being like a massage for one's foot. I don't entirely agree but it was MUCH easier than I expected. I'll definitely do that some more - perhaps tonight on a night-run with B-May.

Back up a little: on Thanksgiving, B-May and I entered the Feaster Five Road Race in Andover and we crushed it. We both did the 5 mile distance (as did her sister from Somerville) and I finished at 43:20 and she was about two minutes behind that. I was moving and felt great the entire time. Though it wasn't very cold, my toes got numb and by mile four, I regained complete sense of them. Oh well!

Food updates: Thanksgiving x2, given my family and B-May's family. We hit them both. Been snacking on leftovers since. Lunch, which is soon to follow is probably some sort of turkey sandwich if I am good like that. Dinner tonight is predicted to be leftovers as well but will be wonderful after a cool, 4-mile run to the Newcastle Cemetary and back!

Later!

I Earned my Burrito Today!

So I skipped lunch today. I think it was because of a spoiled Clif Bar that I ate anyway. Rewind: last night after a wonderful dinner of fettucine and turkey-meat sauce, I emptied out my camping gear box. It was full of finds and garbage and things I should have considered garbage. I wasn't exactly ruthless with what I should have thrown away and consequently kept a couple Carrot Cake Clif Bars. These are normally excellent and I was excited to re-acquire, as it were, a stock of them before my morning of bouldering! So this morning after a breakfast of oatmeal with a banana, cinnamon, syrup and brown sugar, (plus a chocolate chip muffin and coffee from Dunks - gotta stop...) I set off for a 20 minute approach with a work buddy for the best bouldering the Seacoast area has to offer: Pawtuckaway State Forest.

It's a strange forest with multiple accesses and the guys I climbed with today had no idea where the nearest ranger station was. It's crazy how big this place is and the quietness sets in with a healthy dose of solitude. This allowed me to concentrate on the rock before me but also led to my dwelling on my soft and strained fingers. All in all, I was pleased with my performance today. I'm just starting out on the climbing sport and I dived in with enthusiam. I stopped when I knew I should and didn't trick myself into any really uncomfortable places - like freezing half-way up a particularly high climb. My friends are strong climbers but encouraging guys who enjoy climbing with beginners and I appreciated their return enthusiasm. I struggled but I sent (read: got to the top of) a couple problems and, like I said, was pleased with my performance. We were out for four hours. At the end of those four hours, downed 5/6ths of the aforementioned Clif Bar and thankfully the sore stomach did not settle in until my next great achievement: a 5K at 8:01 pace!

I decided on my ride home that I would go to bed tonight with a 100% sore and tired body. Well, that is pretty much how I feel right now. I popped in my tunes and bolted. I jogged faster than light to my start and took off. I felt a little heavy-footed but I cruised and my haggard breathing was covered by the blasting of punk rock. It was unhealthy to run with my tunes but I needed to disengage from the difficulty of what I was doing. In the end, I finished at 24:58, which according to runningahead.com, works out to a pace of 8:01. I was pumped!

But then my stomach hurt from the Clif Bar and I didn't even finish my Nuun. That should tell one something! Showered and after a quick trip to the library, I am totally ready to chill out 'till B-May gets home and then totally pysched for Dos Amigos $5 Burritos. Up yours, Subway - Burritos are where it's at!

Work, work work!

Good evening,

I shouldn't complain but I think I might. I have been very work centered and have had little time to enjoy life's pleasures. I've been eating leftovers from the fridge - no pasta shall expire in this house! - and I've been trying to sneak in runs whenever I can. For example, yesterday morning I got up early to run with B-May but also be ready for my Dad to pick me up en route to Maine to visit my grandmother. It was worth the trip not only to see my grandmother but also to retrieve my car that she has been driving for a while now. It's good to have my wheels back but I haven't rode my bike since Thursday morning to work. It's Saturday now. Ooops!

Back to the subject of the run: it wasn't too fast or far at all - two miles - but it was a nice wake-up call that kept the coffee at bay. As I get older coffee is becoming more enticing each morning and I make strong efforts not to drink much and develop the headaches that some of my co-workers do. It would be awful to be addicted to caffeine and not know it until your head hurt. That's messed up. So I find that running or riding my bike to work really helps with that and keeps me from needing the pick-me-up. It's in the ride and the run!

Today was a basic eating day, perhaps dinner will hold more interest though if I make it, I doubt it. For breakfast I put together an egg sandwich of oatmeal bread, a fried egg and a slice of cheese. I enjoyed a corn muffin on the side with liberal amounts of butter and because I drove, I stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way to work for a small black coffee. I don't wanna get addicted but I'm not going to let any sugar or milk dilute it either! Lunch was PB and J with leftover Sun Chips which are losing their appeal over time. When I was eating my sandwich however I multi-tasked and threw two kayak racks on my car for B-May and my's upcoming paddling adventure scheduled for tomorrow - weather pending. I'm looking forward to a picnic lunch somewhere on the bay and an afternoon of kayaking, getting to know our area better.

Here's to tomorrow!

A Productive Day Off

Good afternoon,

Just doing what I do after a good run: downing a Nuun. I've written about these before but they're worth mentioning again. It's a simple electrolyte replacement that gives me my soda fix but are only the size of Alka-Seltzer tablets that - bonus - come in a recyclable container. They're awesome!

This means that I just got back from a good run. Indeed! A little 4.1 mile jaunt down to Newcastle and back again at a 9:17 mile pace. I can be happy with that indeed! I have been reading Zen and the Art of Running recently over lunch - an uneventful grilled cheese on soon-to-expire bread with an egg on top - and read about pacing. This seems like a very good idea as a means of getting faster, which I want to do but I am content at present with what I can already do. This is also in perfect congruency with the pattern of my running - content with 1 mile, all of a sudden doing 2 - and so forth. So check in for faster runs, haha.

Breakfast was oatmeal, something I have truly fallen in love with since our move up North. It's been a reliable and filling and wholesome meal that I fall back on frequently when I'm without eggs, or pancakes or something similar. Okay, this brings me to the reason for my post:

Stuffed acorn squash. There are some asparagus above in the oven tray which complemented the garden veggie quite nicely. B-May put together a mixture of diced corn muffins, Craisins, pecans, onions, spinach and peppers for a crunchy filling even before we dived into the squash itself. Acorn squash comes apart easier than grapefruit - and without the shooting citrus - and, no surprise here, tastes like squash. I liked it a lot. I was quite full and remained during almost all of our movie last night, Fistful of Dollars, a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western classic. Actually, I was hoping to catch a different plot than the one I ended up seeing but I was glad that B-May stayed awake and attentive throughout. Always a wonderful way to spend the evening.

Off to shower as my stink is getting into the computer I feel...

Later!

Post 40!

Good morning,

Though it is a lousy morning...B-May and I went for a short, two mile run today. It was drizzling the whole time and we were sore from life I guess. I put in a fast 5K yesterday (translation: 8min miles) and felt a little tight as a result. Our next event is the annual turkey trot in Andover, MA - the Feaster Five. Unlike last year, we will be running the five mile run, not the 5k. One could say we've graduated. Actually, this was a goal of ours and now that we can regularly put down five miles, or more we're excited for a good result.

We have agreed to a grocery ban for the remainder of November. There are some exceptions: milk, bread and other perishables. But the point is that for the most part, we are not visiting the grocery store for much at all. This is an effort to save money but also to be a little more creative with what we have. Call it an Advent awareness or something. So for example, yesterday at work, I had Annie's organic macaroni and cheese with tuna mixed in. It was excellent and filling and I barely had room for half a brownie.

I should note where this brownie came from: B-May's sister who ran the Somerville 5K with us came up for the day to shop with her sister and before I had to go to work, we all went to Ceres Bakery in town. Excellent sandwiches! Wow! I had a tofu on ciabatta with sprouts, spinach and a tomatoes with a rich horseradish drizzled on top. Incredible.

Today I made pancakes to keep up a semi-tradition of pancakes on Sundays. They were excellent compared to the last time I screwed up nearly an entire batch. Chocolate chip pancakes, plain pancakes and banana pancakes - I covered them all! I've been trying to incorporate power foods - to me, ones that are found at the end of a race on giant tables - into my meals. Here's another example: after my "fast" 5K yesterday morning I mixed up my usual oatmeal with peanut butter, syrup, cinnamon and a banana. This was very filling and I could feel a very present pick-me-up after having it all. And that was without milk! We ran out for a while so I had to make do with water. Never a bad thing. Water is my favorite drink.

Last big note: Friday night B-May and I along with another couple, Robbie and Christina, took part in Portsmouth's restaurant week. It was a fantastic excuse to eat monstrous amounts of food with a pittance of a check compared to its usual rates. I had a seafood cocktail trio of crab, lobster and jumbo shrimp for an appetizer, a Longboard beer to wash it down. For my entree I enjoyed a massive slab of swordfish swimming in a light lentil soup and topped off the meal with a chocolate mousse before heading out to catch some jazz with a couple beers to end the night. It was indeed filling and I think that sheer amount of food kept me from running any faster when I did my "fast" 5K.

Another website worthy of note: runningahead.com This is a neat online training log that allows users to map out usual routes and input them as part of workouts. I have since saved a number of my routes and being able to recall them quickly makes choosing a distance easier than ever. I usually end up trying to retrace an old run trying to distinguish one turn-off from another before giving up and inventing something new. While I am a little hesitant of abusing certain routes, I have been able to use the program to see when I getting bored and use their map software to spice things up.

I have a dude-day ahead of me: a college buddy is coming up from Boston and the plan is to drink coffee and beer and listen to records with some errands such as picking up another PS2 controller also on the docket. So off I go!

9.3 Miles!

Good afternoon!

I just finished an eventful morning of errands that I kicked off with a 9.3 mile run! My plan was to set off for a loop I knew but apparently I forgot the distance. I did not anticipate that distance at all. So...sweet! I was able to run along the ocean through the roads that bisect Odiorne State Park and feel the mist of the water. I have been talking about getting down to the ocean to fly a kite with B-May for some time now but weather has always cancelled our plans. Today though, I flew down the roads that racked me with pain the first time B-May and I attempted (and completed) a half-marathon distance. I should add that I walked for three VERY brief stretches. Since I started running on my forefoot and finding some real pleasure in running, I have had difficulty running when it really hurts or when I'm really panting for air. So, in three instances on my run today, the run was simply not fun. As soon as I realized this, I took it easy for 20 paces or so and then the spirit was with me again and off I went! As an added bonus, the wind was blowing the remaining leaves off the trees I ran by, enabling me to keep occupied with the task of catching one as it fell to the ground without stopping my run. Honestly, fun!

I have noticed another interesting pattern about these long runs: I skip (though not entirely) my breakfast. I never skip breakfast! I can't function without breakfast! Yet when I run these longer distances, I find two slices of toast, one with butter the other with peanut butter to be sufficient. It's kind of bothering me how the long run can throw me off so much.

So like I mentioned, I ran and did some errands and just finished polishing off a bowl of pasta with a sprinkling of butternut squash and onions. Leftovers, of course. Now I should be off retrieving a boiling pot to make some hot cocoa for this cloudy day!

Bouldering and Beers

(Originally supposed to be posted on Monday...)

Bouldering and Beers: Well, not in that order but both did happen within the past 24 hours. I just finished hosting a friend from study-abroad on a blundersome morning of driving around central New Hampshire looking for the parking lot of site we thought we'd try. Turned out to be a little harder than expected and we only got a chance to climb for about 30 minutes. That was a bummer. It made all the beer we'd drank last night even harder to swallow (literally: I still have hot-burps, a rude reminder that PBR in excess is never without consequences). For breakfast beforehand, we had some bagels from The Works, a small chain presence in town and I had a VitaminWater XXX to feel somewhat human again.

Another departure from the blog has left me wondering what I've been eating or doing with my life lately. Nothing particularly interesting actually. I did have a wonderful chicken pot pie that B-May made from scratch.

It was excellent. Heated up a good portion for leftovers at work and now it's all gone. It's always sad when a good food is no longer in your refrigerator. As such, I've been eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! I forgot how good these things are! B-May is a faithful customer of Trader Joe's peanut butter which is the crunchiest peanut butter I've ever had. Excellent with a grape jelly that even though it contains high fructose corn syrup is still enjoyable.

At some point I went to Panera because I figured we didn't have any lunch foods in the apartment (which B-May quickly corrected me on and let in on PB&J's, etc.) I got the usual for me: smokehouse turkey panini with a slice of french baguette. Oh! And a Jones organic soda which was tasty.

Got a couple runs in too, and am still pumped about the race in September. Just need to find four other events to make it a strong season. Off for another run perhaps?

Bricks and Bowls

I am officially signed up for Lobsterman 2010. It's crazy! Olympic distance triathlon? No big deal. At least it better not be after nearly an entire year of training. Enter the first session: I biked for five miles and ran for almost one. The problem: I forgot to take off my helmet after dismounting the bike and jogged a quarter mile without noticing and was forced to carry it the rest of the way. Foolish rookie mistake.

I also had trouble breathing. Since I've been landing on my fore-foot, I have not worried about breathing - in fact, it comes that much more naturally. Really, a wonderful thing. After getting off the bike however, bricks truly did become a different animal: I was strapped for air and the generous swig of water I downed in between sports left me feeling quesy and with a rolly stomach. It was that strange, uncomfortable feeling where one wants to burp and clear their throat but can't because the body needs oxygen. I'll get better though.

So let's go backwards: during my lunch today, I watched Castaway. I haven't seen this movie in a long time and given my frequent viewings of Man vs. Wild I was intrigued to see how many survival techniques were employed by Tom Hanks' Chuck Noland. Turns out, quite a bit. I digress. Lunch was organic! It was also painfully simple; macaroni and cheese. Annie's from BJs that B-May picked up yesterday.

Quite good and not overly filling. I had milk to drink and snacked on three cookies we made with applesauce instead of butter and a whole wheat flour. As B-May says, there are only so many things one can do to change a cookie. Lesson learned.

For breakfast, I ate a meager bowl of Oats and Almonds from Hannaford before my misadventure of a brick. Afterwards, I sat in Popovers for a couple hours and in the course of that time, had an egg and cheese sandwich on Texas toast instead of a bagel with an orange juice. And then I couldn't resist a cup of coffee. Organic Bali!

Last night we hung out with some work friends and snacked on two fish tacos with chips and guacamole and a Corona at Dos Amigos Burritos in Dover. For dinner, B-May made me this delicious stir-fry of veggies with a bed of rice. Excellent dinner! I just didn't eat enough and had the appetite for fish tacos.

BUT LAST NIGHT, before I forget we saw Christopher McDougall speak at UNH. He's the author of Born to Run the mantra of my running cadence. As one audience member pointed out, it's not about the barefoot runners nor the fore-foot strike: the book is about loving running as a natural activity, the one pursuit that connects all humans. Good speech and the Q & A session was even better.

For lunch at work I had the leftovers of my dinner I made for B-May. It was, as promised, the Southwest stir-fry. It was served in a bowl and thus forms the theme of this post. Here's a picture:

Now that I'm back from the past, I am off to have dinner with my parents. We're thinking "Radici" in town. Hooray!

Weeks from Serious

Good evening,

I am far from a professional blogger. I have no photos to share and no appealing itinerary of foods. I will say that I ate well but am in no way capable of accounting for even the good stuff. That will have to suffice for a sorry excuse for my departure from the regularity of blogging.

Yesterday, B-May and I went to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. It was sort of insane. I have never encountered so many vegetarians in one place. And they were all in that one place - we're talking wall-to-wall people. I sampled some wonderful foods, slurped a terrible green mixture that I should have refused and pocketed a number of coupons and interesting brochures. We were joined by friends, Dave and Chelsea and later ventured into Cambridge for some beers at the Cambridge Brewing Company and then for dinner at Veggie Planet in Harvard Square. See the theme there?

Not all of the vendors were preaching vegetarianism but most were. Some were trying to hit passers-by over the head with messages on loving all animals and just eating plants. The punk-rocker in me wanted to spite them for taking such a close-minded view. I don't often get to experience the other extreme (opposite the folks sipping porter on Beacon St) but it was not the happiest nor most positive series of encounters. This is not to say that people were hostile because they were not. Rather they utilized every square inch of the soapbox provided to them by the festival to let their messages ring among the crowd. Most vegetarians though seemed just as selfish and cheap as myself and skipped out on the fanfare for the free food.

On an exercise note, I ran 6.5 miles with a buddy always good for introspection on Friday. We kept up a good clip and did a decent lap of Newcastle before breakfasting at Colby's in town. Enter a slew of breakfast staples: chocolate chip pancakes, home fries, and scrambled eggs plus one radical: veggie sausage for a wonderfully filling post-run meal. I haven't run since but I rode my bike to work today and that was cold but worth it.

I am about to cook a warm supper for B-May who is feeeling slightly under the weather today and it looks to be a southwest chili fettuccine or something of the like. I didn't have all the ingredients I hoped for but am confident I can make do for now.

I guess that's it for now, I'll make a conscious effort to photograph it and keep up - strike that - begin, the good work. OH! Before I forget, I'll be signing up for the 2010 Lobsterman that I saw Brad compete in this year. I am officially entering into the sport of triathlon. Sweet!

Four Days Later and a Short Post

Good afternoon!

It is truely gorgeous outside. I saw the temps rise to 60 degrees today and I just got back from a four-mile run on the bay. Plugged in, I cranked up some tunes (though only at 60% of max volume, B-May) and took in the wonderful views. Felt good to get some miles in on a day that was made for miles. That being said, I am snacking on some rich desserts - the remnants of the weekend. But I'll get to that in a second.

Friday morning I pulled the 9-5 at work and finished off the tostadas for lunch. I brought along some desserts - congo bars - and washed it down with the usual seltzer water. When I got home, I found B-May laid up on the couch, and feeling quite sick. Something had been bugging her I remembered in the morning and apparently that fatigue or whatever remained throughout the day. Having just got off my bike from the ride home, I was eager to eat some dinner! But when I found B-May like this, I thought of running instead. I owe this inspiration to some mulling over a new book I'm reading, Zen and the Art of Running. It's quite fascinating and while my grasp of the subject is elementary at best, I can already see myself applying its practices. Clear of any negative connantations of running in the dark, I did just that. As soon as I stepped off the deck and onto the curb I started running. As it turns out, I was moving! I set a new PR, finishing a 5K distance in under 24 minutes. This works out to be my first run at a 7-something mile pace. It was awesome!

I kept my excitement to myself and whipped up some black bean burgers while B-May prepared sweet potato fries. This was a wonderful dinner and a pleasant and healthy way to spend Friday night. I also had a couple PBRs for dessert with dessert. That's not a typo.

Saturday I made disastorous chocolate-chip whole wheat pancakes. I called them "the Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Only two pancakes came out as I hoped they would. They were not photographed. Afterwards B-May and I walked about in the rain and sipped a coffee from Breaking New Grounds and went birthday shopping for my mom and B-May's cousin. Neither of these intiatives proved to be very successful but we enjoyed ourselves. With a tuna melt and a slice of apple for lunch, I was out the door and off to work. Staying late, I finished the remaining black bean burger and tried an entire Chobani vanilla flavored Greek Yogurt. I was quite thrown by the tart-ness of this yogurt and did not enjoy it nearly as much as I did the Stonyfield. When I got home, B-May had been baking some sweets for my mom's birthday: pumpkin, chocolate swirl brownies with cream cheese frosting. I had four. Then we went to a Halloween party and down two beers from a Long Hammer IPA keg before heading home.

What I ate on Sunday would take too long to list so it will suffice to say that after leaving brunch at the Colonial Inn in Concord, MA, and indulging at B-May's cousin's birthday party, I was uncomfortably stuffed. For the record, nearly everything was vegetarian - thank goodness chocolate does not have meat - and while we ate in extreme excess, there was cause to. B-May got a run in before the morning started. I did not.

Today, I headed up to Maine for some fall cleaning with my parents for my Gram and beforehand I enjoyed a big bowl of oatmeal and sipped another coffee on my ride up to South Portland. After a couple hours of chatting, cleaning and raking, we went out to Applebees where I had tortilla chips with their spinach and artichoke dip before my chicken fajita roll-up. Water for a drink!

Well, I cut out quite a bit there, but I'm all caught up and looking forward to a more routine eating week while upping my mileage on the runs.

Later!